This Athleisure Brand Is Switching It Up

This Brand Is Known For Leggings — But Its Latest Launch Will Surprise You

Odds are, you know Aday because of its leggings — maybe you're even one of the 2,000 people on the wait list for a pair. The brand emerged in 2015, just as the athleisure trend was really taking off, so its mission to create clothes built for long wear and a range of activities (not to mention, its use of traditional performance fabrics for relaxed ready-to-wear) fit pretty neatly into that narrative. However, the plan wasn't ever to make activewear that passed as clothing.

"We always wanted to make the most curated iconic staples, the foundation of a wardrobe," co-founder Meg He told Refinery29. "We just couldn’t launch them all at once." So, leggings came first, then track pants — and other so-called wardrobe essentials that still erred on the athletic side, such as shorts, mesh tops, and sports bras. The intention, though, was always to make what He and her co-founder, Nina Faulhaber, consider "the future of clothing" by recreating silhouettes that are seminal to a women's closet with long-lasting materials and versatile shapes. Its latest launch puts it a step closer to that goal — and slightly veers the brand away from its fellow athleisure pioneers.

Technical Tailored is Aday's riff on a "power outfit" — trousers and all. The three-piece collection consists of an oversized collared dress shirt ($125) fashioned out of a wrinkle-free, quick-drying fabric; cigarette-fit pants made from a thermoregulating fabric ($115); and an airy racerback tank ($60). The sleek garments seem closer to what you'd find in, say, the business-casual section of your wardrobe rather than in your designated athleisure drawer. But Aday's mission is to squash the idea of a compartmentalized closet all together.

As far as the Aday story goes, this concept has a somewhat unexpected inspiration. "If you look at Star Wars, every single person in it, no matter what they’re doing, wears the same clothing every single day," He explained. "That really struck a chord with us: We want to get to the Star Wars-level of clothing." That meant finding fabrics that are both minimal and functional; performance pieces that can work for a variety of situations, no outfit change required. "We are the 'slash' generation, where everyone’s always d.j./producer/investment banker. We live more mixed lives now, and our clothes should always embody that." The duo found a factory that has manufactured for both well-known active and fashion brands, but the facilities kept their production of these two totally separate categories, until Aday brought them together. "We fell in love with the idea of connecting the two and creating something that had the best of both," Faulhaber said.

Now, these aren't exactly cigarette pants you'd also wear to spin class: Rather than clothes that you can wear to a high-intensity workout that could also don at the office, the Technical Tailored collection is about recreating pieces that are universal, but also sometimes hard to care for. Aday used performance-minded fabrics and silhouettes that allow for various forms of styling — that way, you can wear them for an entire day without having to stop by the dry cleaners or change out after lunch. And while Faulhaber explained that "we actually don’t see [Technical Tailored] as a business wardrobe," the Aday duo noted that something like the collection's collared shirt probably would've been a handy item to own back in their Goldman Sachs days, when they would cycle through the same staples that required constant care and attention.

He framed their intent with this collection as a question: "How do we create something that’s so fundamental to both casual and business clothing, but have it in a way that you can style it [both] ways?" It's less about checking off boxes in your wardrobe, and more about creating a new type of wardrobe staple, according to Faulhaber: one that delivers on longevity and versatility in both an aesthetic and technical way. We're sure that would make General Organa proud.

So, are we a step closer to Star Wars-level clothing? See for yourself in the slideshow, ahead.